Still Bonaire

In addition to snorkeling, the last couple of weeks have allowed me to focus on some chronic problems. The autopilot / plotter / navigation software interfaces now all seem to be working well which is a big improvement. Then I had to replace a voltage regulator for the engine mounted alternators and in the process I discovered and solved a problem that had been there since New Morning was launched. A wiring short cut had introduced an error in the temperature compensation causing the voltage to be too high, but that had been partially offset by the default parameters of the regulator which were too low. By correcting the wiring and setting the correct parameters in the regulator the batteries are now getting much better treatment which should contribute to their longevity and reliability. As they say, cruising is the endless process of fixing your boat in paradise.

Life is pretty easy here, though Bonaire is somewhat of a conundrum. Below the water is a lush marine wonderland, above the water is a desert. Most of the development is clustered along the western, lee shore. Businesses (and diving is THE business here) are along the shore, backed by residential areas. Our friend Joel Simon who runs snorkeling trips around the world (www.seaforyourself.com) took me on an expansive tour of the island. Half a mile away from shore is desert. Real desert, with open expanses of powdery red soil and cactus. Once I saw this it completely explained why the boat is caked in red dust. Trades blow off the Caribbean on the east shore, pick up the dust and deposit it upon everything else clustered on the western shore. The annual rainfall is just 20". Think of Los Angeles (annual rainfall 15"), but without water from Northern California and no snow covered mountains to the north and east. Bonaire makes all of it's own water, desalinated from the sea.

The population is just 14,000, but most people speak four languages - Dutch, Spanish, English, and Papiamentu (close to Portugese). Everything works pretty well, the food is excellent (though no patisseries), people are friendly and it's noticeably less expensive than Guadeloupe or Antigua.

A Polar beer is about $1.50 in a bar. It's only 8oz, but they're happy to sell us as many as we want!

The weather has been a bit odd. It's cloudy in the morning about 70% of the time, then it clears up later on. Kind of like San Francisco, except I don't know what's driving the cloud cover because 2/3 of the island is flat and it's no more than 5 miles across. And a persistent haze hangs on the horizon, producing sunsets like the one in this picture, but are so different than those east Caribbean sunsets.

Below the water is amazing. Literally right off the back of the boat are big parrot fish, eels, angelfish, squid, and all manner of tropical fish. And they're big, much larger than the same fish when we saw them in the east Caribbean. We're moored about 100yds from the main street of Kralendijk, and right off our bow is what I call the "lap pool", Bonaire style. Why build a pool when you have 80 degree crystal clear water at your doorstep? They've laid out long course (50m) lane lines and different groups come down on different days to train and go through all the stuff you'd see at a local pool. People swim laps, kids fool around when they should be paying attention, a coaches blows a whistle and yells at people, etc. I haven't seen a proper swim meet yet, but if they held one I'm pretty sure this is where they'd hold it.